A faction of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) has condemned the government’s recent decision to allow beneficiaries of the land reform programme to sell or transfer their farms.
The ZNLWVA faction, led by Andreas Ethan Mathibela, argued that permitting the sale of land undermines the sacrifices made during the liberation struggle and would only benefit a privileged few, rather than the broader population.
Speaking at a press conference in Bulawayo on Tuesday, Mathibela criticised the government for making this decision without consulting the public through a referendum.
He asserted that the move will primarily benefit the elites while sidelining ordinary Zimbabweans. Said Mathibela (via CITE)::
I can guarantee you, that the minute that pronouncement was made, the entire nation, war veterans included, were taken aback. Society is saying, “You people didn’t go to war just to acquire land and then sell it”.
Who are we selling it to? What will happen to our future generation when we sell the land that many lives were lost fighting for?
I hope society misunderstood what the government said, but it was live on television when they made the announcement.
The land will not expand beyond the borders of Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. That means once you sell the land, only a few people will hold onto it.
Mathibela said only a small, privileged group benefitted from the land reform programme while the majority of the veterans of the liberation struggle were left out. He said:
I can speak on behalf of war veterans—about 75 to 80 per cent have not been allocated land, the very land they fought for, including myself. I don’t even have a piece of land. So, the question is, who owns the land right now?
When you sell land, the buyer is not obligated to engage in agriculture. Some just subdivide it for housing.
Land that was meant for farming is being privatized. People get title deeds and can do whatever they want.
There is a US$3.5 billion compensation bill for former white farmers, yet many of us who fought for this land remain without it. Does that make sense? Personally, it does not.
We must be careful and respect our citizens by consulting them. If we all agree to sell the land, then it’s on all of us, but that decision cannot come from a few individuals.
Mathibela compared Zimbabwe’s land struggles to international conflicts, like the conflict between Palestine and Israel, where people are fighting for their ancestral land. He argued that Zimbabweans must also fight to retain their fertile land.
Mathibela declared the war veterans’ firm opposition to the sale of land in Zimbabwe. He said the land is God-given and must be utilised by all Zimbabweans, including war veterans adding that they do not support initiatives to sell off land.
Mathibela further stated that as a constituency, they are lining up to apply for land to be productive.
However, he warned that they are against the selling of land. He argued that if the land they fought for is sold and they can’t access it, it will cause problems.
More: Pindula News